Library Excursions
by Twethereal
Summary: Ginny is in the library trying to finish her Potions essay. What will happen when a certain blond boy shows up? DG
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_**A/N: This is my first fan fiction ever so I'd really appreciate any reviews so that I can improve. (I'll definitely need to get some in that case!)**_

_**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling.**_

She looked over her shoulder. No one was there.

_That's the third time I've had the feeling that someone was watching me. This is getting creepy._

Ginny Weasley was sitting in the library catching up on her homework. She was currently writing a Potions essay. _It's due tomorrow and I'm not even halfway done!_ She had been putting it off because Potions was her worst subject. _Probably because it has the worst teacher ever! _Professor Snape was the Potions Master and Ginny - not to mention most of the students at Hogwarts - hated him. Just the other day, he had given a Gryffindor detention for "smiling too much" during his class.

Shaking off her feeling of unease, she went to one of the bookshelves to see if she could find a book that might help her. But there it was again. The horrible feeling that someone or _something_ was watching her every move.

This time, she didn't even need to turn around. The mystery person spoke.

"You are looking in the wrong section of the library. The self help books are over there."

Draco Malfoy. There was no mistaking his arrogant voice.

She whirled around and was met by his famous smirk. He was leaning against one of the bookshelves with his arms crossed. _Great. Just what I needed. Now I'll never get my homework done. Even if he goes away I'll be too mad to continue._ If looks could kill, Malfoy would have died five minutes ago from the glare that the youngest Weasley was now giving him.

"Honestly, I am not surprised that you would know where the self help books are, Malfoy. Seriously though, if that's the only thing that you can come up with, then you're losing your touch."

"Believe me _Weaslette_, I can come up with much more than that. You have many faults, although I'm sure you know that already. I can't be the first person who has pointed them out to you."

"Whatever, _Ferret_." She bent back over her Potions essay and pretended like he wasn't watching her. After a few moments in which he hadn't looked away, it started to unnerve her. She gave up pretending to forget his existence and asked, "What do you want, Malfoy?"

He sneered at her. "Nothing. I just got really bored and decided to come to the library to see if there was anyone to torment. Lucky for you, you are my first victim."

"Lucky me."

There he was, smirking again. Ginny wanted to wipe that smirk right off his face. It was the one thing about him that annoyed her more than anything else.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" She tried to say this quietly as she still was in a library, but it was increasingly hard. Madame Pince would probably be coming over soon. Luckily, they weren't in her line of vision as they were in the back of the library.

"No," he said simply and took a seat right next to her. He leaned over her Potions essay, chuckled, and then leaned back against his chair in his arrogant manner. "Well Weaslette, I guess not everyone can be as good in Potions as I am."

"Like I would want to be good at anything that you are, Ferret."

"Stop calling me that."

"Then stop calling me Weaslette! I have a name you know!"

"What, you want to be on a first name basis now?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

She just glared at him. _Why is he wasting his time with me?_ "Never mind. Lets just stick with _Weasley_ and _Malfoy_." Ginny finally shut her Potions book. _I'll never get it done. Oh well. It's all Malfoy's fault, the git._

"You are giving up? Good thing you aren't in Ravenclaw. You would be a misfit among _them_."

_Maybe I _can_ get my homework done. _The redhead then said something that even surprised herself. "Well, if you're so good in Potions, then why don't you teach me? Unless… you're lying about how good you are?"

She could see that her words had the desired effect. He was no longer wearing his smirk and he leaned forward in his chair.

"What is in it for me, _Weasley_? Why would _I_ want to help _you_?" Malfoy spat out.

_He's such a dolt, but he's the only chance I've got now if I don't want to fail._ She sighed. "Because you'll have the satisfaction of showing that you're smarter than a Gryffindor in something for a change?"

"What do you mean 'for a change'? Still… if that is the case, I guess I will _allow_ you to learn from me. At least I will have more cause to mock you later. Get out a clean sheet of parchment. You are going to write your essay over again." _There is that smirk again! It is so infuriating!_

"Don't be so cocky!" But she got out a sheet of parchment anyway.

For the next hour Ginny listened attentively to everything Malfoy told her about Potions. She found herself not minding that she was being taught by a Slytherin. _Malfoy isn't that bad when he is not trying to be insufferable. We've been here for a while and he hasn't said any more mean things to me._ In fact she found herself actually appreciating Malfoy for a change. _He didn't really have to take me up on my offer, even though he is only doing it for selfish reasons._

She looked over at him. Malfoy was poring over her almost-finished essay and making little corrections as he went. A strand of hair fell in his face and he pushed it back behind his ear.

_You know, he really isn't that bad to look at either._ Being a Quidditch player had made the blond-haired boy strong and it showed. He was rather handsome too. _I guess I've just never noticed because he's always got the Bow-down-to-me-I'm-a-Malfoy look on his face. It really suits him to be relaxed and let his guard down. I wonder what it would look like if he smiled. Really smiled, not just smirk… wait… what am I thinking? Here I am practically fawning over a Slytherin! I mean this is _Draco Malfoy_ that I'm talking about, of all people!_

_If I don't watch out, he's going to catch me staring at him!_ Shivering at what he would say if he did, Ginny wrenched herself out of daze and sat up straight.

Noticing her shift in movement, Malfoy looked over at her. "Did you fall asleep there for a second, Weasley?" He had a slightly amused expression on his face.

Good, so she hadn't been caught. "N-no. I'm just…" she searched around for a good excuse, "…getting bored."

"Oh, well _excuse_ me! I did not mean to bore you!" He said it like he was annoyed, but it didn't show on his face. In fact, he still looked amused.

"No it's not the way that you're teaching it, it's just the subject. I'll pay closer attention!" She sat forward in her chair and looked over at her essay. "So what were you saying again?"

"Maybe it is time to call it a day. You should probably go back to your common room to get your _beauty sleep._" He moved to stand up.

Ignoring the mocking tone he used when saying that last bit, Ginny put a hand on his arm. "No, I can't stop! This essay is due tomorrow!" She looked down at where her hand was resting and drew it back as if she had been burned.

_**A/N: I just felt like stopping there so I can submit this. I'm so impatient! I was originally planning for this to be a one-shot, but I think now that it is going to be 3 chapters. Maybe…**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_**A/N: Here's chapter 2 finally! I'm so sorry it took me over two and a half years to get my butt into gear. I was having extreme writers block for a while and then school just kept getting in the way. Thanks again to everybody that reviewed, favorited, and/or put this on story alert! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! And a special thank you goes out to rowan-greenleaf for helping to get myself motivated. You must read Rowan's stories. They are really good!**_

_**Oh, and by the way, I know that this story doesn't go along with the books at any point in the timeline, but I've just decided to look the other way and pretend that I didn't notice. :) **_

_**Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own anything. I'm not nearly as clever as J.K. Rowling!**_

Ginny blushed as she let go of Malfoy's arm. He looked at where her hand had just been, but from his expression, she couldn't tell what he was thinking. _You touched him! He's definitely going to want to leave now!_

For a second, it looked as though he would, but then to her surprise he sat back down next to her.

"What would you do without me?" he asked in his pompous manner.

"Do you really want me to answer that question Malfoy?" Even though she still needed his help, she wasn't going to put up with him being high on himself.

Malfoy ignored her and started speaking. "I wrote down all of the changes you need to make. Why don't you work on that for right now, if you can handle it?" He leaned back in his chair again and watched her to gauge her reaction.

Ginny just looked at him, let out a frustrated groan and set to work.

A little while later she felt someone gently shaking her shoulders. _What's going on?_

"Wake up, Weasley," someone said softly.

_Oh that's just great! I fell asleep. Where am I again?_ She looked up and her eyes fell on her awakener. _Oh yeah. I forgot. I'm still here in the library being tutored by Malfoy._ She sat up straight.

Malfoy still had his hands on her shoulders and was helping her to stand up. "Now I think that you really ought to call it a day."

"Did I finish?" she asked yawning.

He looked over at her paper. "I think so. It looks like it anyhow. Come on. I'll help you get everything together. Madame Pince is about to close up the library for the day." He started putting things in her bag.

_Wow. What's up with this sudden change? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Malfoy was going soft. Maybe I'm still asleep…_ She put the last item into her bag.

"I will expect you here tomorrow at the same time to resume your tutoring. Don't be late." He turned to leave.

"Wait," she said before she could stop herself.

He stopped in his tracks and turned his head slightly in her direction, but didn't turn fully around.

"Thank you. You didn't have to help me but you did anyway. I wouldn't have been able to finish without you." She blushed slightly as she realized that this was _Malfoy_ that she was talking to. _You're going to make him not want to help you. You're just reminding him that he just helped a _Weasley_ of all people. Why can't you keep your mouth shut?_ She waited on bated breath to hear his reaction to her stupidity.

He turned slightly, looking like he was about to say something scathing but then thought better of it and just nodded and walked away.

Draco was walking down the hall on his way to the Slytherin common room. The sound of his shoes hitting the stone was the only sound to be heard. He thought over what had just happened.

_Why didn't I say anything mean or rude to her before I left? She is a Gryffindor and a _Weasley_ no less! In fact, why did I agree to help her in the first place? She is probably one of the people in this world that I should hate the most!_

But he found that he already knew the answer. He had been sitting there waiting for her to finish her essay when he noticed that she had fallen asleep. He had almost woken her back up, but something in him had stopped him from doing so. That had given him the chance to study her.

The first thing that he had noticed was that it was _really hard_ for him to remember that she was a Weasley. _She looked beautiful as much as I hate to admit it. Her hair is just such a unique color. Not at all like her brothers'. Theirs is just… irritating. Hers looks like it is on fire when the light hits it just right. It really is a sight to see…_

Draco shook himself out of his reverie. _I can't be thinking this about Weasel's sister! That is just wrong, in more ways than one… But still, she really is good looking… Okay, stop it! Don't think about her like that! You don't like her!_

He proceeded down the hallway trying to reassure himself of that fact. By the time he got to the Slytherin common room he had almost completely erased Ginny from his mind. He was about to go up into his dormitory when he made the mistake of looking into the fire.

_It's the color of her hair…_ Draco smacked himself on the forehead. _Great. There I go again. This is going to be a long night…_

Ginny woke up the next morning in a _really_ good mood. _Why do I feel so happy? What did I do yesterday?_ And then she remembered. _Oh yeah, I was tutoring with Malfoy… and he was actually nice to me! Well, there is a first for everything… but still! Malfoy? Maybe he's just waiting until today to tell all his friends that the "Weasel's baby sister" came crawling to him for help. Yeah that's it… he couldn't have been nice on purpose…_

But for some reason, this last thought made her really sad. She shook it off and started off to the Great Hall to get some breakfast.

When Draco arrived at the library for Ginny's next tutoring session, she was nowhere to be seen. _Maybe she forgot all about it... or maybe she is avoiding me… Well, I'll wait for her a little while at least._

Five minutes later Ginny came bursting through the door, her bag swinging out beside her. Madame Pince didn't look too happy with her choice of entrance, but Ginny paid no attention to her and walked over to the table at the back of the library at which Draco was sitting. "I'm so sorry that I'm late. I was held up in the hallway," she said.

Draco managed to subdue his strange relief at her appearance and nodded in acknowledgement. He tried to conjure up a scathing remark to prove that he hadn't completely lost it, but he found he couldn't come up with anything for once. _Odd._

Sitting down next to him at the table, she dug her potions book out of her bag, laying it down in front of her. "So, where do we start?" She looked up at him almost cautiously, as if she thought that he might run away if she wasn't careful.

She needn't have worried. Since he had agreed to tutor her, he had found himself mysteriously captivated by her. Here was a Gryffindor who was not afraid to be seen talking to a Slytherin. Because he knew what the _Dream Team_ would say if they saw them together, especially her brother. He wouldn't be able to understand why she would choose to sit at the same table as the "enemy", even if it was just for tutoring. Draco admired her for not caring what they thought. _That's one thing we have in common at least._

He noticed that she was still looking at him expectantly and he focused on what she had asked him. "Show me what you learned about in class today."

Ginny flipped through the pages of her textbook, looking for the right page. "Oh, here it is." She moved the book over in front him so he could see what was on the page.

"Alright Weasley. Here we go; you may want to take notes. And do try to keep up."

She childishly stuck her tongue out at him, but reached into her bag to get her quill pen and a piece of parchment in spite of herself.

_**A/N: There you have it; the end of my second chapter. I updated the first chapter too, by the way. I promise it won't take me nearly as long to update this time. I've kind of been in writing mode lately. Reviews are loved and constructive criticism is appreciated. I would love to hear your opinions.**_


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